NFL Network Has a Major Problem (Nov 24, 2007)

Jay Posner of SD Union-Tribune: Posner writes about the NFL Network asking the FCC to force the cable TV operators to carry the 70-cent-a-month cable network that has only 26 hours of original programming a year.

What is going on with a network that demands to get on cable, but has a major problem with its own network?

The NFL Network has only 26 hours of original programming (all live play-by-play games) a year. Not a month. Not a week. Not a day (it's impossible anyway). A year. That's all the network offers. Period.

Sure, I like to watch the football games, as many people do during the fall season as the ratings prove. A bad NFL matchup beats most anything that's opposite it. Why couldn't the WB or UPN before they both merged into one network bother bidding for rights to broadcast some of the games the NFL offers? The Thursday and Saturday NFL package that's airing only on the NFL network could surely be sold to independent stations hoping to make a quick spike in the ratings as any NFL network is better than whatever is on the CW and My Network TV anyway. I'd like to see the FCC force the NFL to sell the live NFL games to the local terrestrial broadcasters so those games can be seen by more people.

XHDTV and KUSI, as well as KSWB, could purchase a package to air on their stations, as none of these three stations are a major force in the local ratings without one of the major four networks as their affilliation. XETV has Fox. KFMB has CBS. KGTV has ABC. KNSD has NBC. All but KGTV has a network affilliated with the NFL. KGTV carries ESPN's NFL games only when the Chargers are playing. The FCC could in turn force ESPN to sell their Monday Night Football package to independent or unaffilliated network stations (KGTV is not owned by ESPN's parent Disney.) The NFL enjoys high ratings, but even with ESPN's grandfatherish reach in cable, the ratings are just a few tads below the ratings the Monday night games used to get on ABC until 2005.

It's no wonder why there's not much on broadcast TV nowadays. Most of the time, I'm watching sports on cable instead of broadcast. I have to tune in to SD4 cable channel to see the Padre games. I have to tune in to ESPN, ESPN2, or FSN to see some of the Laker games. I had to tune in to TBS to watch the NL playoffs. Like, why is sports being relegated to cable more and more every year? This is getting ridiculous. It's no wonder that today's youth are not interested in sports compared to 40 years ago; they're not being exposed to the broadcasts if they're on some cable network that doesn't care to get on the local airwaves. The games need to be on broadcast television, pure and simple.

Thursday, I watched the Packers/Lions game on Fox, then the Jets/Cowboys game on CBS. But when it came to 5pm, I watched the USC/Arizona State game on ESPN instead of the Colts/Falcons game on NFL, which I don't have because I'm too cheap to afford digital cable. For those who purchase digital cable, you know what you're in for when it comes to how much you're being billed. At 70 cents a month, the NFL network is overpriced and shouldn't be on a basic cable tier anyway; it belongs as a pay-TV network.

The NFL Network stands at 35 million homes, with more than twice as many cabled homes not getting it, and just a few more homes in the broadcast TV universe that can't get it. Surely, the NFL network could get some independent stations to purchase a package and get those games on the local sticks so many people can watch the games. Then again, the NFL Network would be nothing more than a syndicator for NFL games, which is all people are going to watch anyway. Only the truly die-hard NFL fans will bother to watch more than just the games on the network, and there aren't that many people who care to watch sports talk and news compared to the mass-appeeal games that the mainstream people care about.

This coming Thursday the 29th, at 5:15 p.m., we won't get to see the Packers and Cowboys game. On the final weekend of the season, the Patriots could be trying to make history as the first 16-0 team as they battle the Giants in a Saturday night game also exclusive to the NFL-owned network.

Something has to be worked out. This is unacceptable. Forcing the cable companies to carry the NFL network on basic tier is not the answer.

The NFL thinks that it could get on basic cable with the help of the FCC, which could vote as early as next week on rules that could force the cable operators and the league into binding arbitration.

That should be unconstitutional.

Cox Cable offers the NFL Network on their digital sports package. The're also DirecTV, Dish Network and AT&T U-verse (which is clunky at best) that also offer the NFL Network.

The lone major holdout is Time Warner Cable, who refuses to carry the NFL Network. The NFL Network somehow let Cox put their network on a sports tier, but they're balking at Time Warner's wishes to put them on a sports tier as well. This doesn't make any sense. Posner also reports that Time Warner wants to put the NFL games on a pay-per-view basis, which the NFL Network doesn't want.

What the NFL Network doesn't understand is that they're part of the problem of skyrocketing cable network rates which have gone up so high that I can't even afford a basic digital package at all. I'm being forced to spend too much money a month on basic cable with just six cable channels I bother to watch and the rest basically junk. I don't care for the USA Network with nothing but reruns of Law and Order all the time. I never watch A&E or Bravo. I don't care for MTV or MTV2 either. On an analog cable system, which I have, it's impossible to have cable tiers for the channels I want to pay for. I'm a 20th century analog boy. I don't have digital anything yet.

Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones is still urging the fans of the NFL to cancel cable and get the local cable companies to carry the NFL network so the fans (outside of Green Bay and Dallas) can watch the 10-1 teams battle on November 29th. The two teams will be playing for the outright NFC lead.

The NFL Network is available in about 35 million of the nation's more than 111 million homes with televisions.

Jones tells the AP that he hopes the fans of the NFL games will drop cable and go to AT&T, satellite, or a competeting cable company. Lots of luck to that.

Time Warner is the primary cable provider in the Dallas area, but on that November 29th, a local station there (as well as the one on Green Bay) will be carrying the battle. The NFL rules require that games televised on cable must be made available to an over-the-air provider in the home market cities. The rest of us, however, aren't so lucky, unless one of a home market's teams are playing.

It's frustrating to miss a top game that should be seen everywhere as it's basically a national game. All of the Cowboys and Packers fans will get to see it in their home markets. There's radio play-by-play on an affilliated radio station near you, but that's for us who are stuck in traffic and can't be home to see the game. When we get home, we'll have to listen to the games on the radio since local TV won't be carrying the NFL Network games as long as the Chargers aren't scheduled to be on local TV.

On well. There's only seven more NFL Network live games to miss. Maybe next year the NFL will wise up and come to their senses.

This Sunday we will get to choose between two natural disasters Sunday night - the tornado that is set to hit Wisteria Lane on “Desperate Housewives” on ABC, or the probable New England Patriots’ destruction of the Philadelphia Eagles on “Sunday Night Football” on NBC. We'll stick with the NFL on NBC despite the fact that the NFL Network is a mean grinch.